Moira Kelly

Moira Therese Kelly (born 31 January 1964) is an Australian humanitarian worker. In 2001, she was awarded the Order of Australia in recognition of her humanitarian service to both the Australian and international communities. In 2012, Kelly received the Victorian of the Year award and in 2003 and 2004, she was nominated for the Australian of the Year awards. Biography Born in Melbourne on 31 January 1964, Kelly first developed an interest in disadvantaged children when, as an 8-year-old, she saw a documentary film about Mother Teresa and decided she wanted to be an aid worker. As a primary school student in Carlton, she would climb the fence of her school to help feed the children at the special school next door. In 1982, after completing year 10 at St Aloysius' Girls' College in North Melbourne, she left school and completed a course to be a special education teaching assistant and in 1984 trained as a lay missionary and completed a probation officer course for working with young offenders. She then travelled to Western Australia and worked as a "house mother" at an Aboriginal mission. On returning to Melbourne, she sold her car to finance her airfare, and left for Calcutta where she stayed and worked with Mother Teresa's mission. Kelly, a practising Catholic, remained in India with Mother Teresa for six months until her visa expired. In 1987 she returned to India and continued her work with Mother Teresa and in 1988 she was honoured as an Australian Bicentenary Young Woman of the Year for her work in community services and the Advance Australia Ambassador Award. In 1992 Kelly received the Paul Harris Rotary International Award for her work in The Bronx, New York City and in 1994 she was awarded the first Sir Edward Dunlop award for humanitarian service. In 1994, while in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kelly started Nobody's Children, a volunteer program at a refugee camp. She became the program's Director of Field Operations and organised aid and welfare programs in several refugee camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including opening two pharmacies, starting a free mobile dental health care clinic, starting a home care program, organising the emergency medical evacuation of patients to hospitals overseas, and developing education and recreation programs. Kelly left the Nobody's Children program in 1997. Kelly returned to Australia in the late 1990s and in 1999 she set up the non-profit organisation Children First Foundation.